The Heart of the Matter
by Joy Booth
Summary: In which Regina has her heart frozen and is in need of love.


He knows what it is the moment he sees it. He has held it in his hands before, only now it's colder. The red that was once marred with black, now hints of white as well. In the worst winter Storybrooke has ever know, it still feels so much colder. Had she done this after saving Marian?

He remembers the words she said when asked her why she had pushed his wife out of the path of the Ice Queen's attack.

"_Roland deserves to have his mother," she shrugged before disappearing in a cloud of purple smoke. _

She must have come to this place, their place in the woods, right after that and hidden her heart. She couldn't know that even out of her chest a frozen heart would cause her to turn to ice. It wasn't until the next day when Henry went to check on his mother that he found her frozen solid right in front of the fire place where they had shared their past and their hopes for the future.

"Regina, what have you done?" he whispered, realizing the sacrifice she had made for him.

"It's alright, Robin. It was all for the best," Regina's voice called echoing through his head.

Fool that he was, he dropped her heart, looking around and expecting to see her radiant smirk. But there was nothing, the voice was just in his head. Looking down he was terrified to see a small crack running down her heart.

"I'm so sorry," his voice cracked, as he ran his gloved fingers over the fault line.

"It is fine, Robin. Stop worrying, it's only a matter of time before I'm dead anyway. What's another crack?"

This time he is sure he has heard her voice, and he wants to yell back that it's not true. That they will find a way to save her, but his hope is dwindling with her ever cooling heart in his hands. He realizes that this may be his last chance, so he chooses to take the moment to tell her all the things he hasn't said since Marian's return.

It comes out like vomit, involuntary and messy and making absolutely no sense, but if he is going to lose her she needs to know. She needs to know that he loves her, not loved but loves. And that his heart aches every day that he doesn't see her. That Roland has asked about her so much that now Marian has started taking offence.

With every confession he feels her heart warming. Not a lot, but the ice is receding, so he keeps talking. He tells her everything he can think of until his cellphone rings.

"It's Henry, please excuse me," he says to the heart, which scoffs at him in return.

"Where are you? Is it you? Are you doing something?" Henry asking sounding more panicked than when he first told Robin about Regina's condition.

"Why? What's happened?" Robin asked with hope buoying his own heart.

"She's melting," Henry answers, disbelief anchoring his excitement.

"I'm coming. I found her heart," Robin replies, before ending the call. "See, no one is going to die today, Darling."

"But I'm ready," her voice whispers. "I'm so tired of all the pain, and now I get to be a part of a happy ending."

"It's not a happy ending if you go," he tries to explain, but his own heart is cracking a little in his chest as he picks up the pace.

"It's never a happy ending when I stay either. Sometimes you have to make the big gesture and then it all works out."

"But I didn't want this. I don't want to lose you," he yells out in frustration, shaking her heart as if that will make her be reasonable.

"I know, but it had to be someone and who better than the person no one will miss?" she asks and the turn of phrase drags him back to that day in her castle.

"Henry is back. He knows you. He already misses you. He has been going out of his mind since he found you."

"I could make him forget again," she says all too easily, as if that has been the plan all along.

"Why are you so willing to leave?" he pleads with her.

"Why was it so easy for you to walk away?" she returns.

He is already making his way up the mansion steps, so her waits until he is facing her icy visage before he comes back screaming.

"Do you honestly think it was easy for me? Do you think that I just saw Marian and my feelings for you disappeared? I have a duty to my son. I am a man of Honor. A Gentlemen. I had to do what was right even if it killed me to see you hurting. Even if I couldn't breathe because the smell of your perfume makes me think things I shouldn't. I died inside when I heard what the Ice Queen had done to you. I haven't slept in two days searching for a cure, and neither, by the way, have several others. If you think that your life is not valuable, you are wrong Regina. The only person here who refuses to love you is you."

By the end of his rant, Robin was gasping for breath. He stared at her for a moment, but nothing changed and now even her voice was gone.

"I thought you were going to fix it?" Henry sobbed.

"I can't," Robin finally admitted, as he slumped to the floor in defeat. Only, when he hit the floor, he realized that he found himself in an ever growing puddle.

"Mom?"

"Regina?"

"You really love me?" Regina asked her voice finally coming from her mouth again.

"Of course!" they both yelled. A moment later Emma, Tinkerbelle, and Snow came out of the kitchen to see what all the yelling was about.

"Regina!" they all yelled in surprise, wrapping her in an odd hug.

"Who saved you?" Snow asked looking between the man and boy in the room.

"The Lady, as always, saved herself," Robin answered with pride, offering Regina her heart.

"How did you find it?" she asked, as it passed back into her chest.

"Why, I carry your heart in my heart, my dear. I learned that when I began to hear it call," he explained.

"And Marian?"

"There are many people we love in life, my Darling, but there is only one we love the most. And for me that is you."

"And for me that is you, too," Regina grinned, pulling him into a deep kiss. Across the room Tinker Belle smirked, because she had known it all along.

**A/N: new to the fandom, please review and let me know how I'm doing.**


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